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Winner of the Contest, Week 6 of 8

Posted in » Contests - by Ades

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Winner of the “Free Hosting and Domain Name” contest for the Week-6 is Eddie Poh. Congratulations!

Contest Continues…

Contest will run for another 2 more weeks. So hopefully whoever didn’t win will have a better luck in the coming weeks. Good luck!

If you are new to this contest, you can still enter for it. All you need to do is to subscribe to my RSS (or via Email) and leave your contact details at the contest page. Once you have done that, you will be automatically in for the upcoming weekly draws.

Thanks to hosting sponsor

Hosting sponsor for this contest is my good friend Arstan Jusupov of Jusupov.com. You may subscribe to his blog here.

P.S This post has been intentionally locked. Please leave all your comments regarding this contest at this page. I do not want new participants to leave their details all over the place.

Blogging (un)ethically, and why it matters?

Posted in » Articles, Islam, Personal - by Ades

13 Comments 

Yesterday I was preparing for one of my MBA final exams, Strategic Management. (Yes that’s why I slowed down with my blogging, sorry about that). One of the topics covered was ethics. It said:

If you have a clear moral compass guiding your priorities and those you set for the company, you will be a more effective leader.

This observation is repeatedly one of the first thing effective leaders mention when they answer a question about what they think is most important in explaining their success as leaders and the success of leaders they admire. ~ McGraw Hill, Formulation, Implementation, and Control of Competitive Strategy.

While reading it, I couldn’t stop but relate it to blogging. How important ethics in blogging? I personally think it’s very important, especially in professional blogging. By professional blogging I refer to bloggers who blog in certain niche, have authority in that particular field, and have large number of regular readers (followers).

Why it’s important that these (popular) blogs be ethical? Well, there are several reasons for that. One of the main reasons is that, some people look up to them - they want to follow in their footsteps, they want to be just like them, and most importantly they are being fed by them on daily basis. So it’s only natural if these bloggers affect them positively. Instead of influencing negatively, and making all the unethical things look normal - as if it was okay to do those (unethical) things.

What constitutes to “Ethical”?

But definition and perception of ethics is very subjective. Behavior that is accepted by one person (or community) as ethical might not be the case with another person (or group of people).

Brittanica dictionary describes ethics as:

the discipline concerned with what is morally good and bad, right and wrong. The term is also applied to any system or theory of moral values or principles. ~Brittanica

People are inherently capable of distinguishing major and distinctive behaviors that are right and that are wrong. (Eg. Cheating, stealing, killing…etc) But when it comes to small things that are not clear, there is always an argument, and you will find people on both sides of the argument. And this is where culture, religion, personal values and principles come to play major role in their decision to determine whether it’s right or wrong.

What constitutes to “non-ethical” in blogging?

Some bloggers like JohnChow have chosen “evil” as their marketing strategy, some bloggers do sponsored reviews for gambling and online casino related sites, some bloggers do not disclose their sponsored reviews and some bloggers go as far as cheating their readers, so that he/she can make few more bucks… all of them are done for the sake of earning more!

I guess for some people, money comes first and everything else second.

I didn’t list all the things that are considered unethical in blogging. That’s for a reason. Because, I want to ask you - readers, for the rest of the list. So, in your opinion, what is unethical in blogging? List the things that you personally think unethical in blogging. (It should not be limited to blog posts alone, it can be anything that is related to blogging, blog design, monetization methods…etc)

I hope readers who read this blog through RSS will take one minute of their time to answer this question too. Thanks in advance!

Free Web2.0 Online Scheduling Tool

Posted in » Getting Things Done, Online Tools - by Ades

6 Comments 

Remember the text based scheduling tool that I blogged here? This tool (look screenshot to the left) is a similar scheduling tool, but it’s more advanced, Web2.0 based tool that comes with all the dragging and real-time response functionalities.

Basically, it allows you to input few day (time) options into a calendar as seen in the screenshot, and send the link to your group members. Your group members can choose which day is ideal for them (and which days are not). In return, they can also suggest their own time preferences and leave comments.

Advantage of this tool over other tools is that, it allows you to set meetings internationally, across all time zones and daylight saving changes. Did I mention it was free? (but for how long?) www.scheduleonce.com

Stylish WebDesign - Creative Solutions for Your Business

Posted in » Sponsors - by Ades

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StylishWebDesign is a design new startup web design team that offers wide range of web design related services. However their specialty is in offering custom design for individuals and small businesses. You can see their previous works here.

Unlike other web designers, during the design process and throughout the project development, SWD gives the customer the url of the project, where customers can see the real-time progress of the project. I think that’s a great thing.

They also assure you that your website will be completed within a week (provided that you are not developing huge site with lots of functionalities).

If you are interested in their services you can send them email at job@stylishwebdesign.us, and they will give you a free quote.

I think some of the advantages of working with small company compared to huge design houses is that, they are agile and personal. They are responsive to your emails and much much cheaper.

SWD has a design directory too. It’s a paid directory, they charge $9.95 for a normal review and $19.95 for an express review. I see that the directory is still new, so, in case you want to submit your websites, I think normal review should be just fine. I am not sure if the customers who order web design get a free directory listing. I think they should.

Recommendation: Everything seems fine with SWD, but I have one recommendation - I think more human touch on the site would play to their advantage. At the moment, you are not sure who is the team behind SWD and where they are located. Putting team member profiles (with photos) and contact details (maybe blogs too), would be one thing that I wanted to see.

Website: www.stylishwebdesign.us

(This was a sponsored review)

ZenHabits go open source, no copyright whatsoever

Posted in » Links, e-books - by Ades

3 Comments 

Popular blogger Leo Babauta has gone Open Source, he says it’s okay to steal my content now. He is allowing people to use his blog’s content in any way people like. After this, I am sure his blog posts will be popping up in many blogs throughout the internet (especially when people are out of ideas and have nothing to post about).

His ebook Zen to Done is very popular too, selling over 1,000 copies within two weeks. It’s an ebook about productivity that is created out of his blog’s content. Currently selling at $9.50. If you do not want to go through his blog’s archive, you can buy this book.

In the same post, he argues that going open source won’t hurt his PageRank and his eBook sales. As you know Google sometimes punishes for duplicate content, when people start copying his content, his blog might get punished. He also talks about other interesting issues regarding copyright, check out his post.

In my opinion, he will do just fine, I think going open source will bring only good things for him. He will get free advertising and his readership will jump many many folds in the near future (currently he has more than 36,000 RSS readers).

What’s your opinion on Leo’s move? Do you think other bloggers should follow his suit?

eBook on WordPress and blogging

Posted in » Links, e-books - by Ades

9 Comments 

Caroline Middlebrook has written an ebook on WordPress. The ebook is 41 pages long, it’s especially useful for the beginners who are migrating from blogspot to their own domain name.

These are the major sections of the ebook:

Chapter 1: Getting and Installing WordPress
Chapter 2: Basic WordPress Administration. 10
Chapter 3: Installing a New Theme. 13
Chapter 4: Setting up Adsense On Your Site. 16
Chapter 5: WordPress Plugins. 20
Chapter 6: Creating Your Site Content
Chapter 7: Final Thoughts
Appendix 1: Uploading Using FTP.. 33
Appendix 2: External Resources

You can download it here.

Winner of the Contest, Week 5 of 8

Posted in » Contests - by Ades

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Winner of the “Free Hosting and Domain Name” contest for the Week-5 is Shaine Jones. Congratulations!

Contest Continues…

Contest will run for another 3 more weeks. So hopefully whoever didn’t win will have a better luck in the coming weeks. Good luck!

If you are new to this contest, you can still enter for it. All you need to do is to subscribe to my RSS (or via Email) and leave your contact details at the contest page. Once you have done that, you will be automatically in for the upcoming weekly draws.

Thanks to hosting sponsor

Hosting sponsor for this contest is my good friend Arstan Jusupov of Jusupov.com. You may subscribe to his blog here.

P.S This post has been intentionally locked. Please leave all your comments regarding this contest at this page. I do not want new participants to leave their details all over the place.

Finding opportunity in a crisis

Posted in » Blogging Tips, Make Money - by Ades

8 Comments 

There is opportunity in every crisis. Isn’t that right? For example, some people were flocking the island of Bali, Indonesia, after the bomb explosions. At that time, my ex-colleague traveled to Bali too. When I asked him why he was going there, and whether he wasn’t afraid for his life, his response was; “it’s less likely that there will be another explosion, and everything is cheap there at the moment”.

He was right, there wasn’t another explosion. And he had a great time with his family. Similarly, in every crisis there is opportunity, and it is applicable to online crises as well.

Post PageRank Crisis

I am sure it’s still fresh in many of your memories, the recent PageRank crisis. After two waves of Google punishments, many blogs which sold text links were left with PR 0. For blogs that didn’t have traffic, content or regular readers, it meant absolute death. Therefore, most of the blogs did what Google wanted them to do - to abandon their source of income, in many cases the only source of income (i.e income that comes from text-link selling). Being compliant to Google’s demands meant using “nofollow” tags on links, leave TLA, LinkWorth, ReviewMe and other similar programs.

Opportunity in PageRank Crisis

Google hit hard on bloggers who sell text links, Google also hit hard on websites that offer text-link selling services. Many blogs gave in to Google’s demands, but almost none of the websites that offer text-selling services abode by Google’s rules. What’s this information tell you?

That means there are less blogs who are participating in these services at the moment. And as you have already guessed, it’s an opportunity for you to earn more if you stay back and use these services. So, if you still use TLA and LinkWorth and ReviewMe… you have better chance of making money than before, meaning before the Google PR crisis.

At the moment, I am running 10 links from LinkWorth, and 5 links from TLA. Actually, I am running more links from LinkWorth now, than when my blog’s PageRank was 7 before. Having a high PR is good, but having (or rather retaining) the source of income is better. Therefore, I don’t think I will be going “nofollow” in the near future, and leaving TLA and LW.

What have you done regarding Google’s demands? Have you complied? For those who stayed with TLA and similar websites, have you been earning more money now?

Advertising Blogger, finding blogs that give the highest ROI

Posted in » Links - by Ades

13 Comments 

Advertising Blogger is a new project by Phil of www.contestblogger.com. Basically it’s a blog about potential advertising spaces on the blogosphere. In other words, Phil will be reviewing worthy blogs (that give the highest ROI - Return On Investment). You should consider these blogs when you want to advertise your blog in the blogosphere (i.e buy reviews, text links, banners etc).

It’s a new project, thus, so far I have seen only the familiar blogs. I hope Phil will venture into other blog categories other than “make money online” category and give us the gems of those categories. I am sure there are tons of great blogs in other categories that we all are overlooking. Now that Phil has taken that task, we can all relax and check his website for updates. If you know of any great blogs that you had a successful campaign, do let us know by commenting on this post.

I didn’t even know that he had reviewed my blog the first (wow), for that I would like to thank him!

Blogged.com, are you listed?

Posted in » Blogging Tips - by Ades

9 Comments 

Blogged.com is a directory for blogs. If you haven’t listed your blog in it, go ahead and list it.

I have checked my blog and found that it had already been listed and rated by the editor. It’s rated 7.0 out of 10, which translates to “very good” in their terms. But I find it quite low still. If you have time, drop by my page and write a review, so that they reevaluate my blog’s rating as 9.8/10 maybe? ;) That would be good rating!

Update: Blogged contacted me and let me know that they have indeed re-reviewed my blog and it’s now rated 9.4/10, and with your help guys, AdesBlog is rated further 9.6/10. Thanks guys!